A major change is coming to corporate services in the UK, and bookkeepers who assist with company formation and filings need to be prepared. Here's everything you need to know about Authorised Corporate Service Providers (ACSPs).
In Spring 2026, anyone submitting information to Companies House on behalf of clients must be registered as an Authorised Corporate Service Provider (ACSP).
Under the new regulations, only businesses and individuals supervised under the UK's Money Laundering Regulations can act as ACSPs. This means that if you are an ICB member with a practice licence or operate under our AML supervision you will be allowed to register as an ACSP from 25 February 2025.
Why This Matters
This move is designed to enhance the accuracy and transparency of company data while reducing the risk of fraud.
This new framework ensures only authorised professionals (such as ICB certified and supervised bookkeepers) can submit corporate filings, enhancing the integrity of business records.
For ICB Members
First of all, don’t panic. If you submit information to Companies House on behalf of your clients, you will need to be registered. But it’s a straightforward process, and ICB is here to help you every step of the way.
ICB Support
ICB Members can join our compliance team on Monday 10 February for the MLR Monday webinar. In this session, the team will be joined by Mark Buckley of Companies House, who is the Implementation Lead for the ACSP project. Mark will walk you through your responsibilities and be on hand to answer any questions. Register here
For any questions around MLR or your professional standards responsibilities, you can just get in touch with the team.
ICB Information Sharing
ICB will be sharing data with Companies House to verify and authorise your registration as an ACSP. Therefore, the data ICB hold must match exactly the data you register with Companies House any discrepancy will result in rejection or removal by Companies House. The data sharing will be constant. Therefore, please ensure that any amendments or changes to your practice or you are notified to ICB within 14 days of any change occurring and that your membership and practice licence or money laundering supervision licence subscriptions are paid and cleared before expiry.
If you're not an ICB Member...
If you're not an ICB member but wish to act as an ACSP, you must be supervised by one of the UK's 25 AML supervisory bodies. There is a full list here. If you are interested in joining ICB, and being supervised by us please do get in touch with one of our friendly team to discuss options.
Further reading
Guidance will be published on the Gov.UK website in early February 2025 to assist with the registration and requirements of ACSPs.